Philadelphia Phillies: 3 center fielders to potentially target in free agency
By David Esser
Kevin Pillar
2020 Team: Boston Red Sox/Colorado Rockies
2020 Salary: $4.25 million
While not necessarily a household name in today’s current landscape, veteran journeyman Kevin Pillar is coming off a career year in 2020. Starting off the season with the Boston Red Sox on a one-year deal, Pillar was shipped away to Colorado at the trade deadline. Pillar had an extremely productive 24 games with the Rockies, batting .308 with an .801 OPS.
Pillar’s collective 2020 OPS of .798 was the highest he’s recorded in his eight year career, and he put up a career high 88 RBIs the previous year in 2019 as well. Despite being set to turn 32 in January, there’s reason to believe that Pillar is just now starting to find his groove in the MLB.
Pillar’s never been particularly great at the plate up until the last two seasons, but his average has always hung around that .250 to .270 mark. He’s also got some postseason experience under his belt from his time with the Blue Jays, which is an added bonus.
At worst, Pillar would be be a pretty safe signing that could give the Phillies 140+ games of average center field play. At best, he could continue the form that he’s shown over the last two seasons. A form that actually saw him earn one singular NL MVP vote in 2019.
Very much a low-risk/high-reward signing, the type of move that the Phils should be prioritizing this offseason.